“Every point counts” is a rider that accompanies the entry forms that are circulated for the Rose Johnson Bowl, a 4-a-side handicap event that is, if not unique then highly unusual in that the end result is the total of each teams points gained over a total of four games up to 21. Not for the first time that statement is very true as some of the results already received show.
It is organised by the Leicestershire County Association which means that teams from league around the county can enter but it is, inevitably, Leicester League teams that are in abundance. Two clubs who are very keen when it comes to supporting competitions are Nomads and Knighton Park, and two of their teams clashed in round one.
The Park received 48 points for the 16-games 21-up format and Nomads’ Cliff Smith had a particularly good night, starting with a 21-5 victory over Simon Aldis he finished plus 47 which in normal circumstance would spearhead victory. But the Park had their own successes along the way with Martin Pember beating Steph Burley 21-9 early to offset that initial shock.
As Nomads whittled down the deficit the final game saw Andy Burnam face Abraham Lam needing to win 21-13 for a team success. It was a fitting climax with the result in doubt to the final point with Lam gaining 15 to prevent Nomads the satisfaction even of a tie for sudden death. The final result was 306-305 to KP.
The second result to come through involved White Eagles, a new club this season in the Leicester League. They are in Division Six with mainly ungraded players throughout which is always difficult to assess. They struggled somewhat in the completely new format to them against a very experienced Abbots Road 2nd team who won 333-277.
All the Abbots Road players played well namely, Shreya Mehta (+15), Geoff Hancock (+44), Jay Kotecha (+54), while Keiron Grant finished with plus 32 with almost the lowest official grading in the match, an excellent performance.
Electricity 3rds needed most of their 144 start in beating a rapidly closing Syston Casuals 347-330. For Syston Jason Woodfield had a plus 47 return while Dave Silvester was only minus 6 for Electricity which went a long way towards the win.
Another close encounter saw Abbots firsts defeat Knighton Park firsts 282-279. Aman Rashid who was catapulted from Division Three to Division One for KP this season had to beat Raju Rahul 21-3 to equal the final scores and gave it his best shot before coming up short at 21-6!
Steve Bessant played well for KP and finished plus 20 while Ross Adams was Abbots’ best player with a plus 23 return. The close result was fitting as these two started the match on level terms.
Two teams are running away with Division Three of the Leicester League with Leicester Electricity 3rds and Nomads 1st locked at the top 14 points ahead of the next and both with a match in hand.
For the Sparks Tomas Oravec, Shokat Makhani and Chris Woodward demolished Syston Casuals 10-0 with Oravec retaining top place in the individual averages with 89%.
Nomads, however, had a tussle against Goons before coming out on top by 7-3. Cliff Smith continued recent good form with three for Nomads but Barry Robinson beat both Zaheer Mohamed and Andy Searle for Goons, the latter slipping down the averages a little, although still at 83%. The match between Electricity and Nomads should produce the divisional champion.
John Bowness
Publicity Officer. (February 11, 2014)